Miis shot to popularity as playable characters in Wii games like Wii Sports and Wii Music, and have since remained a staple for Nintendo. But no game has put Miis front and center into an RPG like the 3DS-exclusive title Miitopia does.

Taking a different approach than the Mii-focused Tomodachi Life, Miitopia puts Miis in a more goal-oriented RPG game. Despite the new genre, Miitopia focuses on the customization that makes Miis so fun, and the result is a solid experience.

A Miitopia for Mii and You

Miitopia starts off with a standard video game plot that has a very Mii twist. One Mii, along with three Mii companions, will need to stop the evil wizard who is stealing the faces off of the residents of Miitopia. The group of Miis set off on a journey to take down the wizard, and there are plenty of quests and missions to tackle along the way.

As the game progresses, players will encounter new characters, each one a new Mii. Players have the ability to customize their own Mii characters as they enter the game, which creates the charm and personality of Miitopia. I played using an entire case of Miis resembling real-life friends and the result was silly and light-hearted. I also had one playthrough where Waluigi and Android 18 were involved in a romance.

The ability to change the cast at any time changes how you view the game’s story. The characters in the world affect the tone.

Additionally, each character is assigned a personality trait by the player that impacts its interaction with others. These traits are shown during cutscenes and random encounters throughout the game. It works well during cutscenes, but not so much during gameplay. While my party traveled down a road, one character complained about by hungry and another responded by shouting about trees. It is strange, but the non-sequitur humor works in a land made of charming Miis.

The Personality of Combat

Miitopia is a straightforward RPG, so it works like most classic games in the genre. In addition to having a personality trait that impacts how Miis interact, each party member is assigned to a class that affects combat. There are typical classes, such as knight and mage, but Miitopia also has unique class types, including cat, flower and princess.

Chef is one of the most interesting classes in Miitopia. Chefs have the ability to heal and dole out damaging spells. Players get to choose what their character does in combat, but party members’ moves are determined by their class, personality trait and the current status of combat. For instance, a chef may attack or buff enemies if each member of the party has a near full health meter.

Despite the fact that player-assigned personality traits and classes are given to each character, the inability to directly control party members is disappointing. Combined with the simplicity of combat, the game can get repetitive. Anyone experienced with RPGs will more than likely find the difficulty too easy.

Where Miitopia attempts to get its replay value from is the infinite amount of characters players can customize and the multitude of class and personality choices available to each character. Because of this, every playthrough is different in terms of team composition and tone.

On my first playthrough, my party was very balanced — I had a damage dealer, healer, support and tank — but trying the game with weirder combinations, such as four chefs, adds difficulty and greatly changes how the characters interact. That doesn’t mean you’ll spend Fallout-level amounts of hours playing this RPG, but there is some variety to Miitopia. It is very self-aware and knows exactly what players should expect from a game starring Miis.

And sometimes your class is literally a tank.

The game takes place in a bright, cartoonish world that perfectly fits the artistic tone of the endearing Mii characters. The music and sound is jovial and upbeat, and the overall aesthetic works well. If you don’t see the charm in Miis, you probably won’t find much to like about this game, but it’s hard to deny their spell when they are completely customizable.

Overall

Miitopia isn’t the most challenging or time-sucking RPG, but what do you expect from a 3DS title featuring Miis? The game perfectly plays into the hands of its main characters. There are endless character customization options and a lot of versatility in character trait-class combinations. This makes each playthrough unique and enjoyable because you never know what crazy interaction your custom-made Miis will have with each other.

Miitopia was reviewed on the Nintendo 3DS using a copy of the game purchased by the reviewer.